Steam & Excursion > Here We See Just How Very Important The Mail Contract Was!

Back in the age of steam and passenger trains, any railroad that was awarded a contract to carry the U.S. Mail dis all they could to carry out the terms of that contract so the mail revenue continued to flow in. Here we see just how far a railroad would go to honor it's mail contract.

The date is November 6, 1944 and Southern Pacific 4-8-4 #4465 and her train #16, the "West Coast", has hit a rock slide some 50 cars past the east end of the siding at Carter, Oregon on SP's Cascade Line. The wreck occurred at 5:05 am with Engineer Fred Jost and Fireman Benjamin J. Davis as the crew on #4465. We see the result of that wreck in this photo. Fortunately the crew survived and their were no fatalities that day

The RPO car of the train has landed on top of the cab of the overturned #4465 as we see to the right. While railroad officials are just arriving to assess the damage and the clean-up needed we see that men have already been tasked with removing the sacks of mail from the RPO so that it could continue on it's journey immediately and not wiat for the wreck to be cleared.

While the #16 would not make her destination on this rainy day, the mail she was carrying would travel on.

Martin



Edited 8 time(s). Last edit at 02/11/18 06:07 by LoggerHogger.

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Don't slip and Fall on those tangled up wet branches! Boy, what a task.

Jim Baker
Riverside, CA



Edited 3 time(s). Last edit at 02/11/18 04:48 by RailRat.

Any fatalities?

filmteknik Wrote:
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> Any fatalities?

I added that info to the post.

Martin

Wow what a wreck!I would be very interested in the derailment dynamics of this accident, with the mail car landing on top of the locomotive and the crew escaping....

I have a photo somewhere of a Frisco wreck during the war and there were armed guards by the RPO

Frisco1522 Wrote:
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> I have a photo somewhere of a Frisco wreck during
> the war and there were armed guards by the RPO

That's because there was Registered Mail still in the car.
Registered Mail is why Railway Post Office clerks wore guns, to protect the Registered Mail.

Were the men that unloaded the RPO Postal employees? Would there have been a Postal official on site to "protect" the mail from pilfering?

Thanks for sharing this interesting and compelling story and photo!

A terrible way to get a closeup view of radial buffers and drawbars. Good to hear there were no fatalities. The mail must go through.

Probably no type H couplers...

Victor A. Baird
http://www.erstwhilepublications.com

wabash2800 Wrote:
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> Probably no type H couplers...
>
> Victor A. Baird
> http://www.erstwhilepublications.com


IIRC type H couplers weren't used on heavyweight equipment much. Seems to be a streamliner thing.

Did the 4465 run again?  It looks bad, but shops did some crazy amazing work, so I'm guessing maybe (probably, even?) she did.
SR

My H couplers reply was tongue in cheek reference my reply to a thread on the passenger board reference the Amtrak wreck in South Carolina. Though I said the horrific result of the Amtrak wreck can't be underestimated the H couplers and higher crash worthy standards of the newer lightweight passenger cars helped a lot. Though the passenger train hit the freight at about 50 mph head-on, most of the cars stayed upright even if they derailed. And as far I can tell, there was no telescoping. Someone replied to my post as if I didn't know what I was talking about.

Victor A. Baird
htto://www.erstwhilepublications.com


PHall Wrote:
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>>
>
> IIRC type H couplers weren't used on heavyweight
> equipment much. Seems to be a streamliner thing.

Tongue in cheek doesn't always come across properly in online forums... trust me, been there, done that.

wabash2800 Wrote:
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> My H couplers reply was tongue in cheek reference
> my reply to a thread on the passenger board
> reference the Amtrak wreck in South Carolina.
> Though I said the horrific result of the Amtrak
> wreck can't be underestimated the H couplers and
> higher crash worthy standards of the newer
> lightweight passenger cars helped a lot. Though
> the passenger train hit the freight at about 50
> mph head-on, most of the cars stayed upright even
> if they derailed. And as far I can tell, there was
> no telescoping. Someone replied to my post as if I
> didn't know what I was talking about.
>
> Victor A. Baird
> htto://www.erstwhilepublications.com
>
>
> PHall Wrote:
> --------------------------------------------------
> -----
> >>
> >
> > IIRC type H couplers weren't used on
> heavyweight
> > equipment much. Seems to be a streamliner thing.

Mary McPherson
Dongola, IL
Diverging Clear Productions